Fuzzy static filled the screen briefly to reveal Dipper with his jack-o-lantern styled tub in hand, standing in his bedroom, a piece of card was stuck on the wall behind him which had 'Dipper's guide to the unexplained' scrawled on it in capitals and outside the window in the background, the sun shone. "And that concludes Gravity Falls anomaly number seventy seven: That thing." Static filled the screen again as Mabel stopped recording.
Dipper dropped the tub and instead picked up Journal three and began to skim through it, walking over and jumping onto his bed as he flicked through the pages. Leaning back with a smile on his face, he began to read when Mabel spoke to him from her bed: "I can't believe that thing ate all our Summerween candy!" she complained.
"C'mon, Mabel, weren't you getting sick of it anyway? I mean, how much did you even eat?" Dipper replied, putting his book down in his lap, still open as he talked to her.
"Not enough!" She gestured dramatically. "I'll never have enough candy" she whispered while drooling.
"Whatever, I know I've had enough for one summer." Dipper picked up the Journal again, continuing to read. Mabel quietly got off her bed and proceeded to wriggle along the floor quietly like a worm, a smirk plastered to her face. "KAZOW!" She shouted as she jumped up, flailing her arms around. Dipper screamed and dropped the book, jumping closer to the wall in shock. "What y' readin'?" Mabel inquired, resting her elbows on her brother's bed and her face in her arms; her legs swung off the edge idly. Dipper sighed before answering her.
"Just reading through the journal," he re-opened the book.
"Well duh! I mean what about? Vampires, Demon caterpillars?" she gasped and pressed her hands to her cheeks, eyes glimmering. "Unicorns?" she said in a hushed tone filled with fascination.
"Mabel, unicorns don't exist."
"Yeah they do!"
Dipper snorted. "Whatever. I'm reading about zombies right now." He showed her the page briefly.
"Ooh, what's it say?"
"Haven't we read this before? I'm not even reading it properly, just skimming the things I didn't read last time."
"Oh come on, don't be such a party pooper!" Mabel poked his nose playfully, making a 'womp' sound with her mouth.
"Why do you want to know anyway?" Dipper rubbed his nose.
"Isn't it obvious?"
"No, not really."
"If I get a boyfriend who's a zombie – for real this time – then I'll know more about his culture!"
"You say that like zombies are from a different country, and aren't undead monsters." He sighed again. "Zombies," he read, "known for their pale skin and bad attitudes, these creatures are often mistaken for teenagers."
"Ha, sounds like a description of Robbie!" Mabel joked.
"Ha, yeah, it does," Dipper said dully. He studied the picture and imagined Robbie himself in the hunched position, frowning at him. Panic began to take hold as he re-read all of the things on the page. "Wait a minute," he muttered, burying his face deeper into the pages.
"What, you think Robbie's actually a zombie?" Mabel joked again. When she got no answer, she continued: "Dipper, I was joking. There's no way Robbie's a zombie! He's too…" she trailed off, unable to think of a sound reason that could disprove her brother's unspoken yet blatantly obvious theory that had begun to form in his head.
"How did I not see it sooner?" The boy jumped from his bed, journal in hand, and started pacing as he re-read the text over and over. "It all adds up, the pale skin, the bad attitude…" he stopped and looked at his sister, "heck, I'm pretty sure his parents are morticians!"
"Morticians? What's that mean?" Mabel asked.
"They're the people who prepare dead bodies." Dipper clarified.
"Ew!" the girl's face contorted into one of disgust and she cringed at the thought. "Why would Wendy want to date a zombie whose parents hang out with dead bodies all day?"
Dipper gasped. "Wendy! We have to warn her!" He ran down the stairs and to the gift shop, ignoring his sister's calls, only to find it empty. Mabel ran up behind him as he called the red-head's name in a panic. "Relax, Dip-dop! I bet she's fine, besides Wendy is super strong and can beat up Robbie if he is a zombie!" Mabel reassured the boy.
"I know but still…" he went to the living room to ask his Grunkle Stan about Wendy.
Stan was slouching with a can of Pitt Cola on the yellow sofa, clad in his typical wife-beater – stained with an odd liquid that neither twin wanted to know what it was – and in his boxers, slippers on his feet. Flicking through the channels idly on the TV, he looked at the siblings and told them: "beats me. Kid didn't show up for work today. If you do see 'er then do me a favour and tell her she's got to work twice as hard next week to make up for it."
Dipper sighed and Mabel nodded, the duo left the room and only half-registered the man's words from behind them: "and tell her I'm cutting her pay if she bails again!"
"Maybe she's on the roof?" Mabel suggested. The two climbed the ladder and exited to the roof to find it vacant, a bucket half-full of pine cones sitting near the edge. "Or not." Mabel muttered, attempting to tidy her hair as it was blown around frantically in the strong wind. Dipper picked up a pine cone and threw it at the totem-pole opposite, aiming for the red target marked on a piece of paper – the cone didn't go far before it was blown back, rolling back onto the roof next to his feet. He released another frustrated sigh. "Where could she be?" he asked himself.
"Oh, don't Wendy and all her friends hang out at the cemetery sometimes?" Mabel said.
"What? How do you know?" Dipper looked at her, eyebrows furrowed.
"Wendy told me! Bloop!" she poked her brother's nose for the second time that day, and he rubbed it again.
"Why didn't I hear about this?"
"You were too busy drooling over her and probably fantasising."
"What?" He blushed furiously, "no I wasn't, I don't fantasise about Wendy, who told you that?"
"Haha, it's so obvious! Anyway, let's go look there now!"
"Right, you're right. Let's go." They climbed down the ladder and into the gift shop again before leaving and heading for the cemetery.
This isn't my first fanfic I've written, just the first I've published. I don't know if I'll post any more for this, maybe if it gets enough reviews or whatever? Just to let you know, if I do add more, don't expect fast updates. I'm late for everything, I procrastinate, and I'm lazy. A terrible combination.
(Based on the Robbie being a Zombie theory.) Wow, re-reading this it feels really short. Only just 1100 words. Cover image is something I quickly did.
Anyway, thank you, please review, favourite, etc…